"He who casts a living line must sweat."

- Ben Jonson

To develop a lean, distinctive writing style, you need practice and lots of it. Only when grammar and diction and vocabulary have soaked into your bones can you get out of the way of what you want to say.

That's what Writing Gym is here to do.

Like any gym, you come here to sweat. You come here to get stronger. You come here to learn more about your abilities. You come here to develop yourself past your current capabilities.

Our culture enshrouds artists with mystical notions of "genius" and "inspiration" and "talent" that are destructive to the true creative impulse. People with stories burning inside of them are often afraid to express themselves because they have learned that writing is something done easily and smoothly by people who spring from the womb with a pen in hand.

They don't.

They work at it, practicing every day until their brains ache and their fingers are sore. Writing has more in common with building a house than with receiving a religious epiphany, and I'm saddened to see people who have stories to tell but who are afraid to tell them because they don't feel the magic of talent and genius inside.

The Writing Gym exists to demystify the creative process and enable you to get out of the way of the stories you want to tell. If you learn nothing else from this site, I hope you will learn that all you need to write well is passion and practice.

How do you practice?

You work on it every day.

Athletes are at their best when they transcend the physical motion of the feat and perform the task without thinking about it, without hesitation, without self-doubt.

We're here to elevate your skill to the level that you won't even think about what you're doing. You do that by practicing over and over again until the mechanics of your efforts are subconscious.

How does it work?

The best way to use the site is to read through the lessons and then try some of the workouts.